Being the change you want to see in the world

Over the years as my eyes have been opened to what is really going in the world behind the curtain and smokescreen of appearances, it became increasingly clear to me that just trying to change the world without changing oneself through sincere self-work is a dead-end road, or, like Don Quixote, chasing illusory windmills. Gandhi was right, we must be the change we want to see in the world.

However, I got into self-work before even starting to look at the world more critically and questioning what we’re being told and taught. Dealing with depression growing up, not able to “fit in” and being emotionally very sensitive, I just wanted to understand and figure myself out. My internal suffering lead me to the works of Carl Gustav Jung, J. Krishnamurti, and eventually to G.I. Gurdjieff and other esoterica, psychology, shamanism, and the healing arts like bodywork, breathwork, meditation, qigong, and yoga, all of which have been (and continue to be) very healing and insightful. Drumming and music have also been a big part in my life and very therapeutic, releasing emotions physically and creatively. Diet and nutrition are important factors as well, because what we eat affects our thinking process, emotional states and overall well-being. Essentially, self-work is an ongoing process that is different for each person and just takes on different levels and qualities.

I also came across certain New Age material and pop psychology which seemed to be a gross distortion of what true self-work and raising consciousness entails. Nothing really got resolved by just focusing on the “good”, ignoring the “bad”, meditating on “peace” or visualizing what I’d like to have/be/do. It merely put me into a blissful ignorant state of mind with a very superficial understanding and experience of love, lying to myself all along.

Many things didn’t just go away by simply focusing on myself, the “Now” and trying to become the “happiest” and most “joyful” person through affirmations, while ignoring what was really going on in the world. My conscience didn’t allow me to close my eyes to the suffering in the world. Eventually I realized that it is a two-fold process, for just focusing on the self does not necessarily result in a change in the world.

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”

– Jiddu Krishnamurti

The question is what is true “happiness” anyway? Many people seem to conceive their ignorant state of being as happiness while believing in lies about the world and themselves. Trying to adjust to a sick society that has taken on pathological values as the norm with a smiling face didn’t work for me and I suffered even more trying to do so. It was during that process that I started to question in more depth official culture, history, politics, religion, education and even self-work/spirituality as promoted these days in the mainstream and the New Age arena. Many of these new “teachings” seemed to be a corruption of true spiritual and esoteric knowledge where truth is mixed with lies as explored in ●•٠· KNOW THYSELF ·٠•●

“Access to knowledge requires courage, as it demands a special psychological effort from the Seeker: he has to accept the postulate that “the truth is out there, but it is very difficult to find”, while at the same time disregarding his own ideas and personal beliefs.”

– Laura Knight-Jadczyk

The burning desire to know the truth about humanity, our universe and the world we live in led me to the fringe world of conspiracies. In the process I had to let go of everything I ever believed was true or not, weeding through the sea of information and disinformation. Many people tend to laugh at the term “conspiracy theories” and even use it with a negative, condescending tone. The social reality that they are taboo solidifies this also deeper into people’s minds, subconsciously. Nobody wants to be called a “conspiracy theorist.” It’s like calling somebody a “wacko” and commonly used as an ad hominem attack that lacks critical thinking. Most people don’t have a true understanding what the word “conspiracy” actually means. Historian Richard M. Dolan brings some common sense to this issue:

“From a historical point of view, the only reality is that of conspiracy. Secrecy, wealth and independence add up to power. …Deception is the key element of warfare, (the tool of the power elites), and when winning is all that matters, the conventional morality held by ordinary people becomes an impediment. Secrecy stems from a pervasive and fundamental element of life in our world, that those who are at the top of the heap will always take whatever steps are necessary to maintain the status quo.
[…]The very label ‘conspiracy’ serves as an automatic dismissal, as though no one ever acts in secret. Let us bring some perspective and common sense to this issue. The United States comprises large organizations – corporations, bureaucracies, ‘interest groups,’ and the like – which are conspiratorial by nature. That is, they are hierarchical, their important decisions are made in secret by a few key decision-makers, and they are not above lying about their activities. Such is the nature of organizational behavior. ‘Conspiracy,’ in this key sense, is a way of life around the globe.“

Having said that, what I noticed over the years was that not many people are actually engaged in both: separating truth from lies within AND without. Many activists who are trying to change the world “out there” by fighting the system don’t seem to be engaged in any sincere self-work as their actions are mostly mechanical and reactionary, going in line with how the system WANTS them to respond, even with violence and riots, as we saw recently in London. But can we blame them? No, not everyone is inclined to do spiritual/esoteric work and we all know that suppression of knowledge is the name of the game. The masses are being programmed to act and react in certain ways, rather than educated to think for themselves or even to know themselves.

People who have been living in the poorest of conditions in a system that keeps them in poverty on purpose and steals from them on a daily basis don’t have the privilege of contemplating on the “Now” as someone in Santa Monica reading Eckart Tolle in between a yoga class and going to Rawvolution for a healthy snack. Billions of people live in conditions we cannot even fathom. They don’t have the luxury of pursuing the so-called “spirituality” as promoted by Oprah since they fight for survival and basic life necessities. Yes, it’s cute to see that Jim Carry finally “got it” and understood the source of his “suffering” when reading Eckart Tolle. But if you make 20 million dollars per movie as a white man , you live in a different world/reality with different “problems” than someone in the city slums or in Palestine.

Yet many people in better life circumstances who focus so much on “the man behind the curtain” also don’t seem to make the effort to put the magnifying glass on themselves. Alex Jones is a good example of someone who is just ranting and shouting, sometimes even doing more harm than any good, clearly not engaged in any form of sincere self-work.

The problem that comes with truth seekers and activists who only focus on the outside is that they can easily fall into the trap of disinformation or they resonate with lies because their “Reading Instrument”, the Self, is not “tuned” correctly through sincere self work which would help their critical thinking abilities. It becomes harder to separate truth from lies and one may even spread disinformation unknowingly because one is less likely to see the “unseen” or the “devil in the details” so to speak, resulting in oversimplifications, assumptions, and misconceptions. In other words, I need to understand my “machine”, my habitual way of thinking and how my emotional reactions and attachments can distort things, how I take in information and how my own bias and conditioned beliefs filter information which can result in cognitive dissonance.

“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”

– Frantz Fanon

Sincere self-work, and understanding what that implies (working towards objectivity within and without), is needed so our actions are aligned with our true self/essence and don’t come from our mechanical reactive and conditioned personality.

According to G. I. Gurdjieff, the human organism is constituted by two fundamental functions: “essence” and “personality”. Essence is what we are born with, the raw material of one’s being. It includes the physical body, genetic make-up, energy metabolism, the inborn capacity for emotions and sensations. There are also external influences that affect us, such as planetary vibrations, present in the immediate environment at conception, during the fetal stage, and at birth. An astrological birth chart can give some insight into that.

As we grow, our essence is molded by cultural influences. It can mature along the lines of its inherent nature and potential, or it can become blocked in its maturation and hence form something that works against its inborn potential. Essence would evolve in societies where essential practices and values predominate, such as sincerity, love, truth, compassion, knowledge, and so on. Obviously we live in a world where such values have become distorted and ponerized, meaning that our society at large has taken on pathological values that are seen as normal and people can no longer make the distinction between healthy and pathological thought processes and logic. One is no longer able to draw a line between correct thinking and deviate thinking. The influence of higher density beings and forces may also have an effect on us as explored in “UFOs, Aliens and the Question of Contact”

Personality is the mask we carry over our essence. The vehicle for essence to work through so to speak. Our personality is conditioned and programmed through upbringing in a society that is built on lies, and the stronger the programming, the harder it is for essence to come through. Hence, de-programming and facing the lies of one’s personality is key so it becomes a direct reflection and expression of essence, which ultimately leads to conscious actions based on one’s inherent potential. In a mature person, essence and personality form one continuous “I”, which is to say that the person is unified.

“People are always infused with all kinds of fantastic ideas about themselves, the world, people, love, idealism, society, etc. Led by his eagerness to evade a disagreeable reality, man gives free rein to his imagination and is inclined to believe the first agreeable lie he encounters along the way. The individual projects his personal illusions onto a cold and immutable reality, and thus deceiving himself, he endeavors to contemplate reality through rose-colored glasses. “Disillusion” is a painful process and can be prolonged, depending on how much time the individual takes to realize he is living artificially and that this condition is a product of his internal dreams. Great courage is required to face reality and to destroy the mirage of a pleasant dream.”

– John Baines

On the other hand, many spiritually inclined people only focus on the self, believing that will change the outside eventually, without making the effort to look at the world more objectively and acting upon it. Gandhi’s call to “be the change you want to see in the world” has also been misunderstood that way. First of all the “kind of change” people want to see is different for each based on one’s subjective understanding of it, which can be very distorted, especially if one is avoiding seeing the world as it is, believing in lies and just projecting one’s desires and hopes that are based on the conditioned personality, resulting in wishful thinking. For example, just being “nice” because I want to see a “nice” world does not automatically make the world so, especially since some humans are “wired” differently.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a couple of articles on Facebook about the Norwegian shooting where over 90 people were killed. It seems clear that it was not just the work of a “lone nutter”, but had a Zionist/Israel signature written all over. On one of the articles I posted, which examined the Zionist connection in more depth, someone calling himself “Shadowmeister” commented and basically blamed me for projecting my shadow on to the world (the irony!). In his words: “You are frothing madness here… projecting the shadow onto everything is no solution either, it is just paranoid, ungracious conspiratorially-infected paranoia. Mossad, Cia, Nato, your mother, whoever… it is too easy to look for blame and continue scapegoating. These faceless agencies that you attribute so much to, it is a childish fantasy wish that they could be so organized….. I am the shadowmeister, and I smell foul. take it for what you can…“.

Now usually I just ignore posts like that, but in this case it is a comment from someone who has worked as a Jungian psychotherapist for 30 years and even wrote some books on Carl Jung’s work. So I thought it was interesting and an eye opener, especially since I like Jung’s work and have gotten much out of it. There is certainly truth to the idea of “the shadow” as I’ve written about in previous blogs. However, the post of this “shadowmeister” confirmed what I’ve seen many times in the “conscious movement” where certain people try to explain everything through one system or teaching and do not see its limitations or even distort it to mold it into their belief system.

First of all there is a difference between blaming/scapegoating and simply seeing things as they are and examining them. If I see person A hitting person B and find out that person C may have told person A to do so and then point out that person C has some involvement in the attack of person A on person B, then this is just my objective observation. I don’t blame or scapegoat person C, nor do I project my shadow into this situation or am paranoid in any way. I’m not emotionally involved at all. I just call it out as it is. Now people like “Shadowmeister” who are not aware of the “third man” and see that as “childish fantasies” (and who never made any sincere research into the reality of conspiracies to begin with) are caught in their own subjective tunnel vision, especially when trying to explain everything through one lens/teaching. In this case the concept of the Shadow according to Carl Jung.

Not everything “negative” in the world is a manifestation of our shadow material, nor is everything that happens to us our karma, nor do we attract everything with our thoughts. Sure there is truth to the idea of karma, but using that explanation to justify all the atrocities in the world is short-sighted and misses the point as we still have to act and learn our lessons, not just “turn the other cheek” or stand by and keep silent, saying “oh it’s just your/their/my karma”.

We are not the peak of God’s creation and so special and holy that nothing other than ourselves would harm, control or manipulate us. It’s actually quite arrogant and anthropocentric to think that way. We don’t do everything to ourselves. It’s not about blaming, but getting out of our self-centered view of reality and the universe. There are other forces acting on us, just as we influence, consume and to a certain extent control lower life forms such as plants and animals. As above, so below.

The learning never stops and humanity still has much to confront and learn about that may require a whole new understanding of reality including a different view on Psychology, just like there are different or expanded views now in science compared to what Einstein and Newton had discovered.

Psychology and Psychotherapy is also not exempt from it and it keeps going, for there is always more to learn and find out that requires an adjustment and new understanding, expanding our view and understanding of reality. It is what raising consciousness implies. People who are stuck in one idea or teaching and try to explain everything through it are building their own limited reality box. This also relates to astrology, philosophy or any religion (east and west) where many “experts” in any of these systems are looking through one lens (many of them distorted/false to begin with), not realizing that this approach can easily lead to distortion and a tunnel vision. It can also become an egotistical point of pride preventing that person to admit to him/herself that there is maybe more to the story which one hasn’t considered before, especially when they have written books about it, their career depends on it and they have an image to sell/live up to.

I’ve seen the same fallacies with successful yoga teachers, reformers, visionaries, healers and other therapists and self-help gurus, where career and image seem to take precedence over truth and reality. There are many topics that affect us more than many of them are aware of, be it the idea of hyperdimensional manipulation, genetic psychopathy or soulless humans. But instead of being more open to such topics and looking into them sincerely and unbiased, these seemingly intelligent and aware teachers ignore or debunk them right off-hand exposing their own lack of critical thinking.

Awareness and study of the aforementioned topics and also looking into the “taboo” subject of conspiracies would actually help and expand their knowledge and ability to truly help others and society at large. Our views on life and existence, science and religion, spirituality and evolution, consciousness and psychology as well as reality as we know it would take on a whole new understanding when looking deeper into topics we dismiss so easily simple because we don’t “believe” them to be true. Let’s not forget, not too long ago we believed that the earth is flat.

“Consciousness means, literally, “knowing-​together.” A development of consciousness would therefore mean knowing “more together,” and so it would bring about a new relationship to everything previously known. For to know more always means to see things differently.”

– Maurice Nicoll

We’re being lied to in virtually all areas of our lives and our attention is being vectored away from the truth. The corruption of science plays a big part in it as well. As a matter of fact, those who get too close to the truth are often attacked and ridiculed. Truth is no good for business in a ponerized society with psychopaths in power, steering the ship where pathological traits have become the accepted norm in our official culture.

Coming back to popular spiritual work such as “Inner Peace”, living in the “Now” and gaining self-knowledge without seeking truth in the world “out there”. This also relates to the concept of “You Create Your Own Reality” which has been corrupted in the New Age arena, making people believe that they live in solipsistic vacuum and nothing can harm them as long as they think “positive” thoughts of what they want to experience, which has been explored before in “The Positivity of Objectivity and the Time of Transition”.

Just focusing on the self while ignoring objective reality is not only ignorant but actually quite “un-spiritual” in a world where people are more and more connected and global events affect everyone to some extent. It can result in more self-delusions, mistaking bliss and emotional highs for love or enlightenment and even narcissistic behavior because one is pre-occupied with oneself.

“[…]Knowledge of self, if it is not matched by knowledge of the world “out there”, feeds a subjective vision and interpretation of the world, limited by our experiences, our routines, our illusions, our prejudices, and our social conditioning.

To escape, to find the way out from this sea of suffering, one needs to see the world as it is, without any blinders. Unfortunately, knowing that certain members of the flock will always attempt an escape, those at the top who benefit from our ignorance, the evil shepherds, knowledge of whom forms part of this necessary knowledge of “out there”, have erected many fences that must each be broken through on the way out. We are caught in a labyrinth, where paths that appear to lead towards the exit will double back at the last moment and leave us even more deeply entrapped; where teachers who claim to know the way out will leave us even more lost in illusion because we think we are seeing clearly when all we see is our own subjectivity enshrined as Truth.

Some of these teachers are sincere, being themselves deluded. Others are truly spiritual predators feeding off of the thirst for truth and knowledge of their followers. Whether sincere or conscious predators, they serve the same purpose, keeping the flock hypnotized and imprisoned.

[…]

This pernicious idea of Inner Peace as presented by many teachers ensures that people who have started to ask questions, who are drained by the horrors and suffering of the world, and of their own lives, will continue to feed those predators around them by developing an ability to tap into a hidden source of energy or bliss. A fixation on the Present – in the particular context of limitation to “right now” – blinds us to our past experience and the application of our lessons to the current moment and the consequences in the future. Knowledge defined as emotional certitude, freezes us in ourselves, locking us away from those people who may be able to see us more clearly than we can see ourselves, thereby closing off any hope of escape.

Any or all of these teachings can be accompanied by techniques designed to produce an altered state in the seeker, a state of altered consciousness that triggers certain neuro-chemicals that “feel like” bliss and this then serves to reinforce the idea that the teaching is “good” and “real”.

[…]

The goal of any esoteric work must be that of objectivity, first in our understanding of ourselves, and then, as our filters and programs are dislodged, of the world. A true esoteric teaching will, therefore, not only focus on “Know Thyself”, but will also provide knowledge about the reality of our reality. If one or the other of these aspects are missing from a teaching, then you can be certain that it is incomplete, and an incomplete teaching, even if through ignorance of the teacher, even if unconscious, is dangerous.”

Seeking truth and making the darkness conscious needs to happen within AND without, not just one or the other. Activism and spiritual self-work go hand in hand. It’s not separated but interrelated. Granted, this work is not for everyone, nor can everyone engage in it for reasons that have been explored here. Not everyone is a Warrior (as coined by Castaneda) and everyone has different lessons to learn and talents to develop. For that reason there also won’t be a collective awakening where everyone is all of a sudden “enlightened” or “aware”. Many folks who are eyeballing 12/21/2012 or 10/28/2011 (according to Calleman) for that to happen will be greatly disappointed. Awaking implies evolving consciously. Now is an opportunity (not a guarantee), a “window” to move up a level so to speak, but it doesn’t happen by itself. Conscious effort and work are needed to counter the forces of entropy for there is a way up and down as the Hopi Indians said about this Time of Transition.

“What is difficult to understand is that without conscious effort, nothing is possible. Conscious effort is related to higher nature. My lower nature cannot lead me to consciousness. It is blind. But when I wake up and I feel that I belong to a higher world, this is only part of conscious effort. I become truly conscious only when I open to all my possibilities, higher and lower. There is value only in conscious effort.”

– Jeanne De Salzmann

However, the ones who are aware and who have the “seed” so to speak also have the responsibility to do the work within and without. Responsibility to live according to their higher self/essence and soul calling, acting for their destiny and doing what needs to be done, which isn’t necessarily what one’s conditioned personality likes to do with all its desires, hopes and wishes. There are countless distractions, temptations and deceptions that keep the seeker away from Truth and Awakening in this Matrix Control System with various forces acting on humanity to keep us asleep. The work to awaken and seek truth is not a hobby, job or about running around with a megaphone and hugging cops. It’s not a popularity contest.

I recently listened to this interview with Charlie “Love Police” Veitch when he made a sudden 180 degree turn on 9/11 after stating for years it was an inside job. Well, I don’t even know where to begin with all that nonsense he is talking about, be it his so-called “field research” about 9/11 up to what he understands under “spirituality”, “love” and “negativity”. He certainly could benefit from a course in critical thinking. There are countless logical fallacies, generalizations and assumptions that make me really question his intelligence and level of awareness. But it shows you that just shouting cool slogans through a megaphone and attracting a big following because of his oversimplified message of “love” without having any clue of the deeper issues this world faces, does not equate to being evolved. And he even claimed to have “evolved” beyond “demonic conspiracy theories”. Sounds more like he has joined the ranks of COINTELPRO/Controlled Opposition.

Interestingly he wrote me some months ago because he really liked the “Know Thyself” video. Seems he didn’t get it though. He claims to be a “spiritual person who lowers fear and raises love”. Well, he’s as far from being a “spiritual person” as he’s from understanding himself as well as 9/11.

“In order to understand the interrelation of truth and falsehood in life, a man must understand falsehood in himself, the constant incessant lies he tells himself.”

– G.I. Gurdjieff

The same goes for popular movements like “The Zeitgeist Movement” or “Anonymous”. It seems people just latch on these movements because they “sound” good and at least “someone is doing something” so they can be part of a “Revolution” without questioning and understanding some deeper issues of reality or themselves. To be honest, I had my hopes up with “Anonymous” at the beginning too but it was wishful thinking and something didn’t vibe right to begin with as it became clearer later on with their actions and announcements. Anyone can claim to be “Anonymous”. It’s actually a perfect tool/set-up for COINTELPRO/Psy-Ops and Controlled Opposition. It takes more for true change to happen than putting on masks, hacking into computers or posting flyers.

“Anonymous” = a bunch of (mainly American) people who got carried away with the movie ‘V for Vendetta” and think they can apply the concepts in that movie in a physical way. They are totally clueless about the true nature of our reality and the forces that control it, and therefore have no chance of changing it. That’s the positive interpretation of this “collective”.

– Joe Quinn

There are also so-called “conscious festivals” like Lightning in the Bottle (LIB), which I attended this year to see for myself what it is all about. It was fun for what it is, but there was much superficial and pretentious “spirituality”. Lots of pretty people in hip “counter-culture” clothes, feathers, furry hats and eye candy.

However, there was nothing on the program of talks and workshops that dealt with the topics we need to become aware of as a species if we want to make the right turn. Simply focusing on “positive thoughts” with the complete distorted application/understanding of “love and light” ain’t gonna cut it. It’s just more self-calming self-deception.

What I have to ask is this, at a festival that claims to be “conscious” and “spiritual” and is supposedly the reflection of the “counter-culture”, why were there no workshops/lectures about the genocide in Palestine, the crimes by the US government aka Military Industrial Complex, the idea that psychopaths without conscience seem to rule our world and institutions, that 9/11 is a lie that has cost oppression and misery all over the world based on a fake war on terror, that Obama is a corporate puppet just as the old “boss”, that UFOs are not signs of our “space brothers” coming to help us but that we are actually “food” in many ways, or that we are not “one big human family”, but that there may be souled and soulless humans and many other issues? ……all these topics are part of being “aware” and “conscious”, are they not?

But of course, it is seen as being too “negative” to bring up such topics at a festival where people want to be all “love and light”. I’m not against “fun” and party at all. I enjoy dancing to some good music, but please don’t pretend it to be more than what it is. It seems that “conscious” festivals like that are becoming more and more a hip thing (and good cash cow from a marketing perspective) rather than using it to truly help people become aware of the shadow that needs to be made conscious of and shined light into. It’s not just about doing yoga, eating raw food and knowing permaculture, nor is it simply about being “positive” for the sake of being positive or “manifesting” your desired income (as it was the topic of one of the workshops we stumbled into). There is much narcissism and ignorance disguised as spirituality these days.

Marianne Williamson‬, who gave a talk at LIB, hit the nail on the head:

Many are called, few are chosen. Now is the time for the ones who feel “called” to ask themselves, what am I doing with my life, where is my attention and focus? Am I doing the best I can to help in this time of transition in terms on working on myself and seeking truth? Conscious Reality Creation happens when we are connected with our true self/higher self and we become a vessel for higher energies to work through us which are in alignment with the universe and one’s soul’s purpose, not the desires, wants and needs of the conditioned personality. If our actions and beliefs are in alignment with what IS, we become a transducers of energies that not only benefit us individually but the world at large, bringing order out of chaos.

For that reason it is important that the ones who are sincerely engaged in seeking truth connect with others who are like-minded, so we become colinear and act as alarm clocks for each other, keeping each other awake and help in the process of separating truth from lies. A nucleus of truly conscious people, acting as conscious transducers of higher energies and seeing the universe as it sees it self, objectively (working towards objectivity), can provide the qualitative frequency resonance vibration that will create the template for the new world. The more people do this work consciously the better, but it is about quality over quantity.

Anyone who has some neurons firing in their brains and is somewhat aware can see that we’re in very precious times and there are forces who do not wish for this new world to manifest. There are undeniable earth and climate changes that are clearly not related to the human-made global warming propaganda (which seems to be merely a distraction from what is really happening on our planet). We see a global economic melt-down, food shortage, riots and revolutions popping up. Obviously it affects the poorer people first. There are cosmic changes and prophecies that have been talking about a “shift” and “transition” in this day and age. But there is also much disinformation and nonsense out there relating to that around the hyped date of 12/21/2012. Truth is mixed with lies.

So again, it comes down to discernment and without inner work in order to “see” the “unseen” we cannot raise our Being to truly BE the change we want to SEE according to our higher nature and not our conditioned personality. At the same time “Being the change” entails facing reality and see things as they are, not as we hope, wish or want them to be. It’s a holistic approach. Just as we need to cleanse and detoxify our body and give it the proper nutrition, we also need to detoxify the world “out there” by separating truth (nutrition) from lies (toxins).

This has also nothing to do with trying to “save the world”, but simply engaging in the process of conscious evolution, nor is it about “controlling external reality”, but acting in alignment with the universe. And we only become truly aligned if we engage in the work to see the universe as it sees itself. Being entails seeing the world as it IS.

Many people talk a lot about the need for compassion and forgiveness which relates to love obviously. But what is true compassion and forgiveness? It doesn’t mean keeping silent about things that need to be addressed if one has conscience. Does Forgiveness imply that we just “forgive” Israel’s genocide on the Palestinian people (as an example) and simply stand by in our idealized state of LOVE where we believe that all is good as long as we are “forgiving” and “nice”? Forgiveness is a word that, just as love, has been distorted and abused. Being compassionate and empathetic implies standing up for justice, if one truly feels for another.

Relating it to healing work, being a professional bodyworker and working with people one on one, I have much compassion, acceptance and understanding for what people are going through on an individual basis. I see first hand (literally) what they are struggling with on a personal and emotional level in these times we’re in as it is manifested in their bodies physically and energetically. I’m not exempt from it either. But the biggest lesson and insight I’ve learned in my own healing process and when working on others is that the dark needs to be made conscious, within AND in the world “out there”.

That is the path towards healing, wholeness and essentially true Love. It’s a process that is different for each as we all have our own lessons to learn, karma to work out and talents to develop in this time of transition. In that sense everyone also has unique skills which he/she can contribute to the whole, so we can support each other, moving from Service to Self and competition towards Service to Others and sharing. It’s about working together creating synergy, but also respecting each others individuality at the same time. What may work for one, may not work for another. But to know this, we need to know our true self and also make the effort to see the world as it is, so our actions have real impact and power beyond self-gratification or senseless rioting.

“Every man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion.

He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over God’s depths into an infinite sea.

This talent and this call depend on his organization, or the mode in which a general soul incarnates in him. He inclines to do something which is easy to him, and good when it is done, but which no other man can do.

He has no rival.

For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. When he is true and faithful, his ambition is exactly proportional to his powers. By doing his work he makes the need felt which only he can supply.”

you talked about how we should know ourselves and change ourselves.. and how important it is in order for us to change the world.. but the question is how do we know ourselves? what is the process that would tell us?

There are many different paths towards self-knowledge and various esoteric teachings and techniques from different teachers. Check out some of the authors mentioned in this blog like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Carl Jung or Gurdjieff. There is also a book list under the “Know Thyself” video here: http://veilofreality.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/know-thyself-%E2%98%9E-video/
Especially the first four links relate to it and are recommended. “In Search of the Miraculous” by P.D. Ouspensky I like a lot. A good introduction to Gurdjieff’s work. These are just some suggestions. See what you feel drawn to and what works for you. One thing usually leads to another.
Then there is also astrology which can help to get some insight into oneself by getting a birth chart. You can do it for free here: http://www.astro.com/
However, I recommend to get a professional reading if you’re really interested in that. “Human Design” can also be very insightful: http://www.humandesignamerica.com
Overall, if you are sincere and truly want to gain self-knowledge your intention will attract the right teaching to you. As the saying goes, the teacher appears when the student is ready. You already initiated the process by asking the question. ;-)

I have mostly finished “In Search of the Miraculous”, and I’ve read some of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s work, and they both talk about that self knowledge is a process in which I have to observe myself and what I do and think about every moment of everyday and try to fix the wrong things that I do. Did I get the message right?

In a nutshell, yes. The “wrong” things are our conditioned and mechanical behaviors. So it’s more of an un-learning and un-doing, becoming more conscious of who we truly are. It’s a process, layer by layer and different for each of us.

Just superb. Insightful beyond words. Thank you Bernhard. Would love to read you thoughts on self-forgiveness and forgiveness of the other on this path to reconciling the darkness (in ourselves and out in the world) and making it conscious. You touched on it at the end here, and it warrants a deeper study.

Excellent, eloquent and covers all the bases.
No more to say other than for anyone looking for like minded individuals to collaborate with and working solutions to the everyday problems we face in these times you could do no worse than to visit these two sites in particular:
freedominfonetwork.org
tnsradio.ning.com
(I am sure there are more out there. Why not come and tell us)

Words of Wisdom

"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"A man must first of all understand certain things.
He has thousands of false ideas and false conceptions,
chiefly about himself, and he must get rid of some of them before beginning to acquire anything new.
Otherwise the new will be built on a wrong foundation
and the result will be worse than before.
To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; one must study a great deal and for a long time in order to speak the truth.
The wish alone is not enough.
To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself.
And this nobody wants to know."- G.I. Gurdjieff

"Cowardice asks the question:"Is it safe"?
Expediency asks the question:"Is it politic"?
Vanity asks the question:"Is it popular?"
But conscience asks the question:"Is it right?"
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular
but one must take it because one's conscience tells one what is right."- Martin Luther King

"When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up" - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch

"In the end, we return to the question, just how much do you love truth? Do you really love truth or are you just curious? Do you love it enough to rebuild your understanding to conform to a reality that doesn’t fit your current beliefs, and doesn’t feel 120% happy? Do you love truth enough to continue seeking even when it hurts, when it reveals aspects of yourself (or human society, or the universe) that are shocking, complex and disturbing, or humbling, glorious and amazing – or even, when truth is far beyond human mind itself?
Just how much do we love truth? It’s a good question to ask ourselves, I think." - Scott Mandelker

"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it." - Gandhi

"Anything is one million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path;
if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: Does this path have a heart?"- Don Juan Matus

"Every man has his own vocation. The talent is the call.
There is one direction in which all space is open to him.
He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion.
He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over God's depths into an infinite sea.
This talent and this call depend on his organization, or the mode in which a general soul incarnates in him. He inclines to do something which is easy to him, and good when it is done, but which no other man can do.
He has no rival.
For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. When he is true and faithful, his ambition is exactly proportional to his powers.
By doing his work he makes the need felt which only he can supply."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- Carl Gustav Jung

"Man must have results, real results, in his inner and outer life. I do not mean the results which modern people strive after in their attempts at self-development. These are not results, but only rearrangements of psychic material, a process the Buddhists call *samsara* and which our Holy Bible calls *dust*." - Jacob Needleman

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."- Jiddu Krishnamurti

"Life experiences reflect how one interacts with God. Those who are asleep are those of little faith in terms of their interaction with the creation. Some people think that the world exists for them to overcome or ignore or shut out. For those individuals, the worlds will cease. They will become exactly what they give to life. They will become merely a dream in the "past." People who pay strict attention to objective reality right and left, become the reality of the "Future."" - The Cassiopaeans

"The scientific discourse misses the fact that the ability to deny is an amazing human phenomenon, a product of sheer complexity of our emotional, linguistic, moral and intellectual lives. Denial is a complex unconscious defense mechanism for coping with guilt, anxiety and other disturbing emotions aroused by reality." - Stanley Cohen

"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. - Niccolo Machiavelli

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. ­ But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it. Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."- T. S. Eliot

"Too many people hold the idea that psychopaths are essentially killers or convicts. The general public hasn't been educated to see beyond the social stereotypes to understand that psychopaths can be entrepreneurs, politicians, CEOs and other successful individuals who may never see the inside of a prison." - Dr. Robert Hare

"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." - Arundhati Roy

"Comfort, the prevailing word for Progress, in its many different aspects and to varying degrees, forms a sufficient aim for the majority of civilized men of our era. Under these conditions of our times, man is only open to divine values in carefully measured doses, kept within limits so that they do not trouble his bourgeois conscience or threaten the material well-being he has acquired." - Boris Mouravieff

"There is an almost sensual longing for communion with others who have a larger vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendships between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality almost impossible to describe." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"The Truth is not Arbitrary or a Matter of Opinion, but can be Investigated, and Those who Earnestly Search for the Truth will Find It. The Truth is Hidden to the Blind, but he who has the Mental Eye Sees the Truth." - Buddha - The Three Personalities of Buddha, XCVIII

"Do you wish to know God? Learn first to know yourself." - Abba Evagrius the Monk

"To awaken is difficult to do, as sapiens is submitted to a cosmic hypnotic influence which is the universal energy of creation; and if this were not enough, each individual, when he does not like the reality of life or is not satisfied with himself, dreams of himself and the world in a manner ideal for himself." - John Baines

"For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it means to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learned." - Krishnamurti

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."- Martin Luther King Jr.

"In order to understand the interrelation of truth and falsehood in life, a man must understand falsehood in himself, the constant incessant lies he tells himself." - G.I. Gurdjieff

"To search means, first, I need Being, Truth; second, I do not know where to find it; and third, an action takes place that is not based on fantasies of certainty— while at the same time a waiting takes place that is rooted not in wishful thinking but in a deep sense of urgency." - Jacob Needleman

"Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief." - Frantz Fanon

"If the masses started to accept UFOs, it would profoundly affect their attitude towards life, politics, everything. It would threaten the status quo. Whenever people come to realize that there are larger considerations than their own petty lives, they are ripe to make radical changes on a personal level, which would eventually lead to a political revolution in society as a whole" - John Lennon

"Those conspiracies that are too incredible to be believed, are by the same right, those which most often succeed. Only the small secrets need to be protected. The large ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan

"When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do." - William Blake

"Two things can get people to make efforts: if people want to get something, or if they want to get rid of something. Only, in ordinary conditions, without knowledge, people do not know what they can get rid of or what they can gain." - P.D. Ouspensky

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - 'Lord of the Rings'

"The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free" - Aldous Huxley

"It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic." - Dresden James

"According to the Great Work, a friend is one in which you support and encourage the other's expansion in either the mind or the spirit.Otherwise they are people you are sentimentally attached to it because they would eat cinnamon bun with you. And they will say 'hee, hee, hee' aren't we having fun". Drug addicts do the same thing. Drug addicts want to be around people who will support them and be away from real friends. Do you know why? Because it feels good. To be a memeber of a mystery school can be catastrophic to the ego and to the ego's habits and to the propensity for mediocrity. No one ever cried striving for excellence. They only cried when their mediocrity was taken away from them and pointed out to them." - Jerhoam

"The human heart cries out for help; the human soul implores us for deliverance; but we do not heed their cries, for we neither hear nor understand. But the man who hears and understands we call mad, and flee from him."- Khalil Gibran

"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw

"So preserve yourselves, my brothers, from the calamities of this place, for distinguishing it is extremely difficult! Souls find it sweet, and then within it they are duped, since they become completely enamored of it." - Sufi proverb

"If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no 'friction,' no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with the desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole." - P.D. Ouspensky

"The ultimate tyranny in a society is not control by martial law. It is control by the psychological manipulation of consciousness, through which reality is defined so that those who exist within it do not even realize that they are in prison. They do not even realize that there is something outside of where they exist."- 'Bringers of the Dawn'

"Every time a man sets himself to learn, he has to labor as hard as anyone can, and the limits of his learning are determined by his own nature. Therefore, there is no point in talking about knowledge. Fear of knowledge is natural; all of us experience it, and there is nothing we can do about it. But no matter how frightening learning is, it's more terrible to think of a man without knowledge."- Don Juan Matus

"The problem is not the term "love", the problem is the interpretation of the term. Those on third density have a tendency to confuse the issue horribly. After all, they confuse many things as love. When the actual definition of love as you know it is not correct either. It is not necessarily a feeling that one has that can also be interpreted as an emotion, but rather, as we have told you before, the essence of light which is knowledge is love, and this has been corrupted when it is said that love leads to illumination.
Love is Light is Knowledge. Love makes no sense when common definitions are used as they are in your environment.
To love you must know.
And to know is to have light.
And to have light is to love.
And to have knowledge is to love."- The Cassiopaeans

"In spiritual matters, knowledge is dependent upon being; as we are, so we know." - Aldous Huxley

"Development cannot begin on the basis of lying to oneself, or deceiving oneself. Man must know what he has and what he has not. It means that he must realize that he does not possess the qualities already described, which he ascribes to himself; that is, capacity to do, individuality, or unity, permanent Ego, and in addition Consciousness and Will. It is necessary for man to know this, because as long as he believes that he possesses these qualities he will not make right effort to acquire them, exactly as a man will not buy costly things and pay a high price for them, if he thinks that he already possesses them." - Ouspensky, The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution

"The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside. " - Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

“That man will be very fortunate who, led by some unusual inner light, shall be able to turn from the dark and confused labyrinths within which he might have gone forever wandering with the crowd and becoming ever more entangled. Therefore, in the matter of philosophy, I consider it not very sound to judge a man's opinion by the number of his followers.” – Galileo Galilei, The Assayer (1623)

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses." -Plato

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein

‎"The elixir of life is truth itself, the preserver of all things. The wise man's stone is science, that can work all wonders and solve all riddles of the mortal sphere. The universal medicine is wisdom, the only cure for ignorance, which is the universal disease." -Manly P. Hall

"Real compassion kicks butt and takes names and is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this FIRE, then find a new-age, sweetness and light, perpetually smiling teacher and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual sounding terms. But, stay away from those who practice REAL COMPASSION, because they will fry your ass, my friend." - Ken Wilber

"Whether we use psychological or esoteric terminology, the basic fact remains the same: human beings do not earn free will except through self-discovery, and they do not attempt self-discovery until things become so painful that they have no other choice. If the individual makes no effort to expand his consciousness so that he can understand the nature of his total unfoldment and can begin to coorperate with it, then it will seem that he his the pawn of fate and has no control over his life. He can only earn his freedom by learning about himself so that he can understand what value a particular experience has for the development of his whole self."
- Liz Green

"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." - Unknown

"Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience." - Howard Zinn

"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome." - George Orwell

"Every age of license is followed by an age of authoritarianism. During these cycles of changing social attitudes academic liberty – freedom of thought – ebbs and flows on a tide of intolerance. We are again living in a time of rising academic intolerance in which important new discoveries in physics, medicine, and biology are being ridiculed and rejected for reasons that are not scientific."
- Richard Milton

"One phenomenon all ponerogenic groups and associations have in common is the fact that their members lose (or have already lost) the capacity to perceive pathological individuals as such, interpreting their behavior in fascinated, heroic, or melodramatic ways."
- Andrew M. Lobaczewski